Back to California

[kevin_standlee]

We were up at 5 AM and the bus eventually found Terminal 2. Check-in and Terrorization was as painless as the process could generally be expected to be. Our flight was boarding our group as we walked up to the gate, so we walked right onto the plane. We'd previously paid for Economy Plus seats, and the third seat didn't fill; indeed, the entire cabin was less than half full. So this really was one of the most comfortable long-distance flights I've ever had.

Photos I've taken but not had time to process include flying over the coast of southern Greenland (every other time it's been dark or there have been solid clouds) and of Black Rock City (our flight path was just north of Burning Man, and this year's event was easily visible from 40,000 feet).

We arrived at SFO early, but three other international flights arrived about the same time, so it took a long time to clear Immigration. Because I answered honestly about the food question (I bought tea and toffee as gifts in duty free), they re-inspected our bags.)

Unfortunately, we missed the BART-to-Caltrain connection by a couple of minutes and thus had to sit around nearly 30 minutes for the next train. When we got to Mountain View, we took a taxi over to my office where my van was parked. We thought we were home free until I tried to start the van and found the batteries were dead. We'd left an accessory running and it ran the battery down. So that was another hour wasted waiting for AAA to come jump-start it, plus more time driving around to be relatively certain the battery was back up to speed, and to grab some take-out food to bring to the hotel.

We are checked in for the rest of this week. I took tomorrow off for recovery. I have the do not disturb sign on the door and have not set an alarm. I am going to sleep the sleep of the exhausted and sick (I have some sort of cold) tonight.

Comments

[msconduct.livejournal.com]

Because I answered honestly about the food question

Because I come in and out of NZ a lot, I am totally enculturated to answering this with absolute precision. Biosecurity is our version of Terrorisation (although with a great deal more reason). Not only do they routinely x-ray incoming bags for evil honey and such, they also have beagles patrolling the baggage hall sniffing your bags. (They're looking for apples, not drugs, and they're really good at it. I had one pick up a banana that had been gone from the bag for more than 24 hours). This level of enforcement often takes overseas visitors by surprise, especially because the fines are heavy. I'm guessing from your post that this is because most non-Antipodeans are used to not declaring food.

[errolwi.livejournal.com]

My last return-to-NZ-but-one the beagle did a false positive on me. I thought that I had missed a muesli bar in my camera pouch or something, but thankfully I was 'clean'.
My last two trips were complete contrasts in terms of return processing. Three weeks ago was a baulky e-passport camera followed by a long wait for bags, and bad queues at food-and-bugs check. Trip before, time from back section of B777 (no checked luggage) to waiting for my gf outside the terminal was 12 minutes.

[msconduct.livejournal.com]

Food-and-bugs is the worst. Assuming you're coming into Auckland, and if not never mind, I've discovered it's critical to get in the right-hand queue, because the left-hand one is frequently held up by the officers stopping to take in other people from the crew/disabled/family lane. I've had a cab give up on me because I was caught so long in the left-hand queue.

[desperance.livejournal.com]

I think half the con knows what sort of cold you have. I'm sorry. (Oh look, an unsuspected advantage of having missed the con: I miss the concrud too. Uh, whoopee?)

[garyomaha.livejournal.com]

Welcome home, and Happy Birthday!

[nojay.livejournal.com]

Any time I laid a vehicle up for more than a few days I disconnected the battery to prevent just such a self-discharge situation happening. It means the alarm etc. doesn't work though while you're away and central remote locking won't work when you get back. In addition I positioned a small solar panel in the front window to trickle charge the engine battery and keep it topped up in such circumstances.

[chocolatescifi.livejournal.com]

The joys of concrud?

[daveon.livejournal.com]

Weird, I declare tea, biscuits, chocolate and the like every time I come in and have never had a secondary inspection. I suspect they would search a Brits bags if they weren't bringing such things back with them.

[kevin-standlee.livejournal.com]

I suppose it could have been a random inspection, too, but I have no idea, really.

Heathrow T2 is pretty nice compared to T1, but I miss the chocolate shop, because they carried a line of sugar-free chocolates that I liked and that I couldn't find in the general shopping area in T2.

[daveon.livejournal.com]

Well, T2 is pretty much new now isn't it? With T1 and T3 still being worked on.

T3 has been nasty for decades now so that's WAYYYYYY over due :)